Bridging or breaking: An ethic of communication for missional engagement

Abstract

Global workers must work toward an appropriate ethic of communication both corporately and personally to effectively engage all recipients of the gospel. Further, an ethic of communication for missional engagement must be biblically faithful and culturally appropriate in order to create ‘bridging encounters’ with potential recipients of the gospel (Kraft and Gilliland, 2005: 53). ‘Bridging encounters’ consist of communicative pathways that build common ground for engagement regardless of the level of agreement; they demonstrate cultural consideration, engagement, and respect of participants’ ideas, which works well in a postmodern age that values conversation. Since the 1920s, missiological characterization has provided a rhetoric of the ‘unsaved’, ‘unincorporated’, and ‘unreached’1 when describing people groups. This rhetoric of ‘un-’ may unintentionally cause breaking encounters instead of bridging encounters. Designating people groups as ‘in’ or ‘out’ can create a sense of ‘othering’ between global workers and recipients of the gospel. The consequent psychological friction proves detrimental to creating personal bridging encounters where individuals communicate the gospel in a more fluid manner (Bhargava and Manoli, 2015).